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Residents give their say on Sterling's future

Trails, signage, moving industry east get big support

This slide from McCool Development's Thursday presentation at the final Community Consensus Workshop for Sterling's Master Plan Update shows the development tiers designated to ensure Sterling grows "from the outside in."
(McCool Development Solutions)

STERLING -- The Sterling Public Library's Community Room was packed Thursday night with people, electronic vote clickers in hand, voting on what they want to see in the city by 2030.

The roughly 50 attendees (more than half of whom were 25-plus-year residents) agreed with every measure suggested, though strong support was lacking for the land use plan that was selected.

But they showed overwhelming support for three items in particular: supporting energy industry east of the railroad tracks, consistent signage throughout the city and creating a trail and recreation framework.

Results came during the third and final community workshop hosted by McCool Development Solutions, which will go toward finalizing Sterling's master plan update.

Since June 2012, McCool Development has collected community data, spoken with separate groups and conducted previous workshops to figure out what the city wants for its future and what's physically and economically viable.

"It was interesting. It looks like a lot of planning and interest has gone into it," said Gary Nichols, a member of the Logan County Economic Development Corporation board. He said he'd like to see McCool Development put together a final presentation based on the new information.

Carrie McCool, of McCool Development, said she was happy with the turnout.

After receiving more than 700 of the more than 7,000 community surveys sent out to Sterling during the fall, she'd expected more turnout at the previous workshops (which had about half the attendance).

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She credits the greater turnout to the Sterling Planning Commission members who had worked to get the word out via "tickets" for the past two weeks.

"Our planning commission is just really phenomenal," McCool said.

The land use plan

Crunching data from prior workshops, McCool Development found the best future land use plan led to more industrial growth east of the railroad tracks, downtown and residential redevelopment, more employment options west on Main Street and future residential growth to the north and southwest of city limits.

Alternative "A" wasn't their only choice. They had developed three more alternative plans - another based on workshop responses called Alternative B, one that showed natural expansion and a third that blended Alternatives A and B.

Their calculations put Alternative A one point ahead of B on a scale measuring factors such as effectiveness of the land used, distance to water sources and expansion built onto prime farming land. Alternative A received 26 points to Alternative B's 25, out of 32 possible.

But when the group was asked about their overall support for Alternative A, two-thirds said they did, but only 19 percent strongly supported the plan - the same percentage that voted "not sure." Nearly half of the responders said they would "somewhat support" the plan.

Adding to the mixed results, 71 percent said they thought the plan represented the public's input, but half of them "somewhat" agreed, and more than a quarter of responders said they weren't sure.

When they were asked whether they supported the idea of an energy-focused industrial and business area in eastern Sterling, two thirds of responders said they "strongly" did. Eighty-nine percent agreed overall.

Growth from the inside out

McCool received 85 percent of the room's support for phasing future growth from the inside out - developing Sterling within the city limits before expanding outward.

She said the plan would call for a three-tiered approach: inside city limits, a quarter-mile outside limits and a mile outside limits.

The second tier would fill in areas between existing development, especially on the north and west sides of the city. Tier 3 would go outside future growth areas, where expansion is possible, but more expensive.

Exactly how the city would fill in existing space is still up in the air, but participants overwhelmingly agreed on one of the three options presented to them in the survey: redevelopment of high density or mixed use housing in downtown Sterling.

While 15 percent of people somewhat opposed that approach, half said they'd strongly support it.

Examples of sidewalks and improvements shown at McCool Development's presentation at the final Community Consensus Workshop for Sterling's Master Plan Update on Thursday. The workshop participants were polled on their preferences; the majority prefer detached, narrow sidewalks on primary and secondary corridors, with attached sidewalks in residential neighborhoods.
(McCool Development Solutions)

Less popular was the idea for developing neighborhood centers, which would mix land uses between commercial, public and residential areas. McCool said the plan would put major services within walking distance of most homes.

McCool Development found seven potential neighborhood centers in Sterling, including three on the north side of town.

Only a quarter of people strongly supported the idea, 40 percent somewhat supported it and a fifth of responders weren't sure.

Bernice Mills, a participant who's leading efforts to develop a historic district downtown, said she loved the idea.

"I drive around Sterling, and I see dead space," she said, "but we could take shopping centers and mix them with green space... We could rezone for more of a mix."

Another excellent idea, she said, was to emphasize Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) - separate dwelling units in or on the same lot as an existing home.

The idea of ADUs is to increase housing options, increase residential density and stimulate reinvestment in established neighborhoods.

But 24 percent of people didn't support the use of ADUs as a strategy, which is the most of any measure mentioned at the workshop; 14 percent of responders strongly opposed it.

Transportation and streetscape

John Seyer, McCool's traffic consultant, laid out the idea for a half-mile connected corridor system through Sterling, which would create an S-curve connecting Highway 14 and Highway 6.

It was the only proposal not to receive any opposition.

Support was split 42 to 38 percent between strong support and some support, while 21 percent weren't sure.

Participants also found an easy majority for streetscape improvements throughout the city.

For primary and secondary corridors through Sterling (the busier streets, such as Main, Logan and Franklin) 52 percent said they wanted detached, narrower sidewalks with landscaping improvements. A quarter of responders voted for attached, wider sidewalks with hardscape improvements, which would mean less room for landscaping.

In smaller neighborhood corridors, 48 percent wanted attached sidewalks that wouldn't expand into the road, but would allow more space for homeowners to landscape. Another popular idea, detached sidewalks that consume more road while providing tree lawns, received 38 percent of the vote.

But arguably the biggest surprise was that nearly three-quarters of those who responded said they would be willing to support a tax initiative to fund those improvements.

City councilmember Patrick Lawson was skeptical, though. He pointed out the difference between approving a tax on a clicker and approving a tax in reality.

Mayor Heather Brungardt mentioned that parts of Sterling were still lacking curbs and gutters, but she was also more hopeful about the tax.

"The people here (at the workshop) really care about Sterling," she said, "and they're willing to pay for it."

Beauty and legacy

Participants also said Sterling's streets need more help than any other area of the city.

Fifty six percent said streetscape improvements were their highest priority -over improving overall quality and design, and even general road quality.

And given five areas in need of beautification efforts, participants chose city corridors (37 percent) over all of the others. That includes downtown and city gateways, which tied for 24 percent of the vote each.

Even the most popular item of the night involved street improvements. A full 96 percent of voters supported consistent signage that "orients visitors and expresses your values."

The survey also asked who supported an art district or artesian center for Sterling - about three quarters -but only a quarter of responders strongly supported bringing that to the city.

Likewise, 90 percent said they supported promoting historic interests and resources in Sterling (28 percent put the primary burden of that on business), but supporters of making downtown Sterling a National Historic District were torn.

Less than half of the 64 percent who supported the designation strongly supported it, and a full 15 percent of participants strongly opposed the idea. And while 65 percent supported ordinances or design guidelines to preserve Sterling's historic resources, only 22 percent strongly supported the idea while 23 percent opposed it.

Trails and disasters

Should a historic district come to Sterling, participants will certainly hope there's a backup plan if a flood or tornado comes to sweep it away.

Less than half of the responders thought the community was prepared to respond to a natural or man-made disaster or emergency. The rest either thought it wasn't (30 percent) or they weren't sure (22 percent).

But as 69 percent thought disaster relief and mitigation planning should be incorporated into the master plan, some of those fears might be assuaged in the coming months.

One thing people were overwhelmingly excited about - rather than worried - was the possibility of developing trails and a recreation framework through the city.

With 94 percent support, it was only beaten out by the need for better signage in terms of popularity. And given five options, two thirds of responders chose a trailhead over any other kind of activity to develop along the South Platte River.

Still, most of the responders felt that maintaining or enhancing existing parks and open space was the highest priority for Sterling parks, rather than creating new parks or trails.

And though they split responsibility for leading the effort relatively evenly, a slight majority said the city government was in charge of improvements.

That's a possibility, according to Brungardt.

She looked into establishing a trail system with former mayor Rocky Joy a couple years ago and said it looked like an option.

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